Painted Lovers and Tattooed Sweethearts
by GwenTheTribble
Summary: How the team (and a few others) meet their soulmates. Soulmates AU. Avengers/The Amazing Spider-Man 2012. Fosterson, Stucky, Clintasha, spidergwen(?) harry/felicia, loki/sigyn. drug use, child abuse, suicidal content.
1. Chapter 1

When Jane was a little girl she stayed up late to watch the storms rage outside of her window and would count the seconds in between. The markings down her back don't make any sense to her or her parents, but her Mother tells her not to worry. The universe wouldn't write the name of someone if she wasn't ever to meet them. The girls at sleepovers all gather in circles and read each other's names to each other. They all wrinkle their noses at Jane's name.

When she was young it had bothered her, but the older she had gotten the more she had fallen in love with the stars. It no longer truly mattered to her; they would get there when they got there. She would love them when she met them, she could do nothing about it till then. Sometimes she would catch sight of it in the mirror and would pull her hair up to look at them. On good days it looked like it could be something like Chinese, on bad days when she was fed up with Donald trying to be her anchor she knew that they were runes.

Darcy hit the large blonde man with the van, and Jane will think later that she felt the words prickle, the way people say they will, when your soul mate is close. He stands in front of the mirror trying on jeans and Darcy looks at her pointedly. Eric coughs and pretends he doesn't see the Jane Foster scrawled down his spine. Jane stares and then looks away when he turns around. If he was her soul mate, he could wait a little longer. They had things to do first.

She takes him to the roof and introduces him to the stars. He would need to know them to know her. "Your world is one of the Nine Realms of the Cosmos, linked to each other by the branches of Yggdrasil, the Worlds Tree. Of these nine realms, of those that are inhabited, all of the people have a mark. A name written down their spines. The name of their soul mate, in their soul mates language."

That night Jane had fallen asleep on the roof. Thor looked at her, and considered this Midgardian who was to be his soul mate. It had taken years for someone to remember that the strange writing down his back was of Midgard. All of his friends had had soul mates written in languages of their own realm. His brother Loki had had the name of Ags daughter, Sigyn swirled down his back. When they had discussed their mates around a camp fire, on another quest, they spoke of who they thought they might have. Fandral said that he simply wanted a pretty girl with a sharp tongue, Volstagg said a plump girl who would love to cook and knew her way around a training yard, Hogun said that he would love whoever the ancients sent him, Sif just said she wanted someone who understood her and didn't try to change her. Loki is mostly quiet, just saying that he hopes they get along. None of them would have put the flighty sweet girl with Loki. They become solemn when Thor tells them his name. An Asgardian and Midgardian? That would only end early and sad.

And now Thor had found her. An extremely brilliant, passionate, risk taking, no sense of self preservation, Woman with bright eyes and waving hands. He now understood what Hogun had said about loving whoever he was sent. This woman is not what he would have chosen but he loves her already.

"Whatever fate lies before me, you are a part of it." He tells her, their marks prickling when they kiss.

He goes away from her and she waits, chasing storms and possible data. They would help him find his way back.


	2. Chapter 2

Clint Barton has Natasha Romanoff etched delicately down his spine. In the days before Barney turns mean he'll say to him that the name sounds Russian. When they join the circus they both joke that this must be how he'll meet her. Perhaps she'll be a sword swallower or contortionist, train the dancing bears or walk the tight rope. Whatever it is that happens at the Russian circus. A fourteen year old Barney tells him knowingly that all Russian girls are practically acrobats and can throw knives.

He catches the sword master stealing money and does the right thing. His brother turns on him and Clint won't stay and be beaten, now that he's old enough to run. He ends up working for the mob, killing who the boss tells him to. He wouldn't be surprised to meet a Russian girl in those circles but he doesn't really want to. He wants a nice girl, one who doesn't work for the mob.

He joins SHIELD and works his way up. He's the best they have and they send him to kill the best there is. Her name is the black widow and she is not a ghost. She is the person in the background, the pretty but forgettable girl on the arm of someone later found dead. He has the arrow knocked, pointing right to her heart. She knows it. She could fight back, could probably even win. She doesn't. He asks if she wants to live. She hesitates.

For the first few days she doesn't tell him her name, doesn't say one word to him. He tells her his name and she stares at him with a calculating gaze. He gets use to cold glances and interested looks. He's just glad that she hasn't tried to kill him in his sleep. He takes her back to headquarters and argues with Coulson and Fury over her. He wins. Her paperwork says Natasha Romanoff and she checks no nationality.

Natasha is born with Clinton Barton stamped on the curve of her back. Her teachers at the red room remind the girls of their duty. If you find them, kill them. She is nineteen when she meets the winter soldier. She is one of the few to know his name is James, but she never uses it, unless they're alone together. They put them alone in a room, at least once a week, trying to create a new race of killers. At first they simply did what they were told, but as Natasha climbed the ranks she made the request: more time with him. They would sit in the room and talk sometimes. It was enough. The young girl killer fell in love with the ghost in the night. They caught on and ripped him away from her, ceasing the unsuccessful experiments. She is cold and says that she doesn't care. This is what they want to hear. She burns the place down a few weeks later.

The winter soldier is sent to kill her. They have wiped her from their memory. Him remembering Steve would not be the first time they didn't do as good of a job as they thought, however. He makes his hands miss. She runs.

Clint Barton tells her his name and she questions why this seemingly good man would be her soul mate. She could understand if it was James. The controlled killers. But not the kind archer who makes her waffles and the monster with red in her ledger. They never say anything about the names on their backs. Budapest changes that.

They are paired together for that mission. When the mission is complete they sit on the highest roof they could climb to, which between the two of them is pretty high. "You know, my brother use to say that your name sounded Russian. But why is it in English?" Clint asks casually. "The names on our backs are not the names we are born with. They are our soul mates true name. Maybe I was Russian once. But I am not now."

They kiss that night, giving in to the prickling words.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes meet when Bucky throws a rock at the kid Steve picked a fight with over the kid bullying a little girl. They've got each other written down their backs and they both know it. Neither of them ever says anything about it though. It just wasn't a safe thing to talk about. Steve's Ma was a devout women and she told her sickly son that she loved him no matter what, but he shouldn't ever mention the boys name on his spine to anybody. He was near death enough without getting killed over that.

They get an apartment together when she dies and ignore what is glaringly obvious between them. Bucky goes on dates and sometimes manages to scrounge a few for Steve. They both act like their still waiting for their soul mates.

Steve meets Peggy Carter and thinks, now this is a woman who I could live the rest of my life with. Bucky falls off a train and Steve mourns for his Friend. His death makes it easier though. He never thinks it and would beat anyone who said it half to death, but it's true. He kisses Peggy and makes a date with her before he dies and maybe kinda loves her. Just because soul mates exist doesn't mean you can't love someone else.

When Fury is killed Steve swears his mark prickles. That should have been the first the first clue but it doesn't even register. It will only be later, much later, that he realizes it.

The Winter Soldier is a ghost in the night. He has no soul mate. HYDRA would say that they wiped his soul too. The Winter Soldier is a mindless killer who managed to gather his mind together in stolen hours of conversation with a remorseful killer. She has red hair and he thinks that they might not be mates but any love is hard to come by in the red room. He'll take what he can get. They take her away from him and wipe his thoughts. They wake him up and don't give him a mission, instead they rush to move him. The obedient puppet does what they say and hears catches of their conversation. Someone has left them in shambles. Somewhere inside him something smiles.

The Winter Soldier's back prickles when he fights the man on the bridge. "But I knew him." They know what's written on your back. He doesn't know that there is anything on his back at all. They wipe him immediately. He looked at them like he remembered that he was a person.

He is the mission. He does not know him. He doesn't know him. He doesn't. The mission keeps telling him he knows him, that he has a name. Weapons don't have names. He wishes his back would stop prickling. He drag him out of the water. Another bit of humanity that he gave him. He does not want humanity. That would mean being anything other than a weapon. He doesn't remember how.

It takes Steve, Sam, and Natasha three months to find him and only because he sat down at their table at Starbucks. He never does tell them what makes him go back. Steve doesn't need to know. Bucky earns back his humanity and his name. Their backs prickle all the time now, just like they use to.

On nights when Bucky forgets that he is anything other than a killer Steve calms him. They sleep in the same bed like they did when they were broke in Brooklyn. They don't pretend that they're waiting for anyone anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce Banner does not have a soul mate. Never did. He is the product of two non-soul mates who fell in love one fine summer day. Like fools they got married against everyone's advice and Bruce was born, 10 months later. The love went away and his father turned angry. His mother loved him though, even if he was a soulless freak like his father said.

His childhood is angry words and fast fists. His mother tries to protect him and gets killed because of it. Maybe he doesn't have a soul mate because he is too taken up with anger. Maybe if he had a soul mate he would just end up his father. He works hard to control it. He can almost forget it. He graduates from high school 2 years early and gets a full ride. He has a hair trigger temper but you would never know it, how could quiet Bruce want to snap someone's neck?

Betty is cool and calming. They start dating and Betty tells him that she already met her soul mate, fifteen with a broken arm she had grown bored and wandered around the hospital while waiting for her father to come and get her. She met a bald boy hooked up to an unknown IV. It didn't end well.

He tells her that he never had one in the first place. They are always a bit more friends on the edge of something more rather than actually in love. He makes one miscalculation and sees green. He loses all of the calm that Betty had given him when he has to run. He has more than a few accidents in the beginning because he had allowed himself to think too long on how he was leaving Betty alone just like he had promised he wouldn't.

The Hulks back, just like his own, is completely naked. So maybe _this_ was why he didn't have a soul mate. The universe knew that he was a monster before he was born and knew that no one could love something like him. Bruce was his father, the man he swore he would never be. Bruce chose a violent end in his quest for silence. Bruce put a bullet in his brain and the other guy spit it out. Bruce tried a few times after that. Scientific method and all.

Agent Romanoff comes for him in Calcutta. Him being on that helicarrier is a bad idea and he can feel his stress climbing higher. It's no wonder he breaks.

Sitting in a shawarma restaurant Bruce feels only tired. But tired is soothing compared to rage that blackens his vision. Stark invites him to live in the tower and plies him with personal science labs. Bruce accepts. It would be nice it be near someone who wasn't afraid of him. The rest of the team moves in slowly, Thor brings along Jane who brings along Darcy. Stark says the more the merrier and furnishes floors and rooms for everyone. Bruce doesn't have a soul mate. But he does have a family, and to him that's much better than any name down his back.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki has swirling runes down his back that spell out Sigyn, daughter of Ag. When he is young his mother took him to the small home outside of the city where the Springtime Keeper lived with her only child. They sent the children off to play while they spoke to each other about adult things. The young Sigyn pulled the little prince outside to the meadow and showed him how her mother had taught her how to make small buds twist open to reveal new flowers. He showed her how he could make the small flowers that had fallen from their vines twirl in the wind. Sigyn gasped in delight and asked him to put all of them in a pile. Loki, proud to show off his developing magic, separated the flowers by type in midair and laid them down gently in a circle around her. She grabbed his hand and plopped down on the ground, making him sit with her. She showed him how to twine the flowers together in crowns for them.

Their mothers smiled at them and looked at each other knowingly when they found them an hour later. Loki had taken off his shoes and had dirt on his pants. Sigyn had taken off all of the fancy clothing her mother had put her in, kicked off the shoes she usually never wore, and undone her hair from its braids. She was clad in only a white shift, the dark dirt on it matching her streaming brown hair. They both wore flower crowns.

Over the years Loki grew into a smart cunning lonely boy. They nodded at each other in halls of the academy and palace. Sometimes Sigyn would wave at him from across the room, and he would wave back if his friends weren't there to make comments. Every anniversary of his birth he received a flower crown. Every year on the anniversary of her birth she received a new breed of flower. They wait for time and circumstance to push them together, as the universe does with all soul mates.

Sigyn, daughter of Ag, is born with the name of a prince written elegantly on her back. The midwifes whisper of the baby who will be a princess of Asgard. She is not of noble birth, but her mother is the Springtime Keeper. She has status enough. Her mother teaches her her skills and takes her with her to the different realms to help the plants bloom. Asgard had always considered it their duty to get the Midgardians to the point that they can survive on their own, in the hopes that one day they would be as advanced as Asgard itself. Sigyn and her mother are worshipped as goddesses of spring and what is spring if not victory?

Sigyn watches from afar as her soul mate takes place as king. Who's place? Odin's? Thor's? His? She waits for him to call her to his side. She wonders if she will go to him.

She never has to answer the question. Loki falls from the bifrost and Sigyn must accept that she is one of those sorry people who must wander, knowing that no matter how far they go they shall never meet their mate. Perhaps in his last days her match was mad, but at least he was alive. Sigyn's meadow blooms greater than it ever has and the plants along the streets of Asgard flourish. Sigyn will bring life to what she can.

Loki is brought back, a deranged murderer in chains, and Sigyn feels her spine stiffen. Perhaps he is lost to her, but he is alive. Any life is a victory.

She makes matching flower crowns and waits for the day her match calls to her. She knows she will say yes.


	6. Chapter 6

Peter is born with Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy written delicately on his slim back. Gwendolyn doesn't sound like a very nice name but Aunt May said that she would probably have a nickname like Lyn or Gwen. He liked that better, but didn't really think about her much. Harry and him were having way too much fun to bother thinking about girls and soul mates. Harry had some girl named Felicia on his back but he didn't like to talk about it.

Harry leaves the summer after 6th grade and the next year everyone seems to be absolutely obsessed with soul mates and dating. All the girls gather in groups and whisper about who had what on their backs and nearly everyone had looked for their person(or persons for a few) in the phone book. The whole school had been abuzz when the head cheerleader had turned out to be the match of the new punk girl.

Peter is acne faced and skinny in freshman year. He catches sight of the ever stylish Miss Stacy that everyone knows of but no one seems to know. Gwen Stacy likes books about science and is probably the smartest in school. Gwen Stacy can tutor anybody and she'll bring your grade up by 20% if you do what she says. Gwen Stacy is on the debate team and in the Girls Learn International club and the feminism club. Peter knows doesn't know why the universe would match him, the tall, gawky, gangly engineering dork and the always well put together Miss Stacy. He decides to let her be for a while, maybe she wants to date first. Plenty of people do. Plus he wants to be done with puberty first.

Gwen Stacy has Peter Parker messily scrawled down her spine. It doesn't matter much to her, other than the occasional daydream about what he would be like.

She knows him distantly in high school. He's smart, nearly as smart as her. He's in the photography club. He always seems to wear two jackets. He carries a skateboard and uses it in the hall. He stands up to flash when he's being really dickish. Gwen's pretty sure he's going to grow into his big feet and big ears. He seems like the biggest nerd on the planet and Gwen smiles whenever she thinks about him.

She thinks she'll give him a few years. Let him live his own life and be his own person before they become a met pair. "Are you following me?" Please don't let her soul mate be creepy. She doesn't want to have to deal with that. She's glad that her soul mate turns out just to be a science geek.

"He has you on his computer." Maybe this was the time. "Do you like baked ziti?" The dork acts like he knows what ziti is. It's ridiculous and he is in for a terrible shock. Her mother makes her father and brothers put on nice clothes when she reluctantly tells her the name of who she invited. All parents have the names of their children's soul mates memorized.

"Oh I'm in trouble." Her soul mate was the vigilante known as Spiderman. Her father was the police chief of New York who ground his teeth at the mention of said vigilante.

It was a pretty good kiss though.


	7. Chapter 7

Harry's parents were soul mates. He doesn't know this till he is nine years old and going through papers that he is not supposed to. His parents were soul mates, a met pair, and his father still killed her. He was cold and distant until she took too many of her pills one night when he was three. Harry's parents were soul mates, and it still wasn't enough. Felicia Hardy was written boldly down his back. It didn't matter. Soul mates didn't mean anything.

His Father sends him away when he is twelve years old, to a fancy boarding school in Switzerland. Norman has his secretary send him a bottle of scotch for his sixteenth birthday and he is gone gone gone. Life in London is bright and expensive. Stick thin girls teetering on six inch heels and white powder, alcohol and club lights, fast cars and colorful pills.

He's called back to New York by the man who never was his father. Do you feel it moving under your skin? The madness? Can you feel it trying to claw its way out of you? He can't bury this under gorgeous models and drugs that make him feel like he's on top of the world. Harry Osborn is dying. He's dying. But he really hates proving people right, so he goes to the board meeting and puts those old smug bastards in their place. You all work for Felicia now, because Felicia works me.

Felicia Hardy was born with Harry Osborn written confidently, brazen in its audacity to decide who her soul mate was. Her father showed her how to crack open a safe when she is ten and Felicia questions who her soul mate could possibly be, to love a girl who thrills over a perfectly played scheme. It didn't matter. She was far more important than any Harry Osborn.

The job is good, she likes being a personal assistant. You meet important people, you live in luxury because your employer does, and you find out all the dirty secrets. Norman Osborn's disease is genetic and the young CEO has it too. That has to be one of juiciest. Felicia almost feels bad for the boy. He was her soul mate after all, and she admired his intelligence. The way he had demanded respect from the old men that thought they could rule the world. Felicia had to appreciate that. She could almost see them being in some sort of alliance type relationship. If he doesn't die first. She wonders if it will be his illness or lifestyle that win in the end.

Harry Osborn sleeps with his boots on and drinks like a fish, but he looks like a shocked child when she calls him Harold. She could work with that. He might die from the way he's trying to destroy himself, but she can work on that later. Harry Osborn was dying. She knew where the venom was.

It's not love, not yet. It probably could be someday, or it might only be some sort of mutual affection and attraction. Perhaps that is all people like them can have. But he is shocked when she calls him Harold and she appreciates the way he demands respect. "Just go home Felicia."

She knows how to save him.


	8. Chapter 8

Not many people were allowed to visit the man who use to be the younger prince of Asgard. The queen and the crown prince, could go, if they so desired. The queen would often attempt to send a projection of herself to her mad, wayward son, though he rarely let her through. Sigyn didn't attempt to see him, as she knew that no one would be foolish enough to allow a soulmate to see her beloved imprisoned, lest she created a plan to free him. The greatest crimes throughout history, in any realm, were always planned by soulmates. She thought of him often, and her home was filled with flower crowns. Her mother had moved on years before, and they had filled her boat with plants and soil, everything covered in flowers but her face.

She twined flowers and leaves in her long brown hair and people avoided her on the street. No one knew how to react to her, it had been well known whose name was written down her back. She wondered if he would have sent her some word, anything, if his cell wasn't containing his magic. Every day she dressed as though that would be the day the world broke in half. She liked Thor, and thought he could be a good king, and Odin had reigned well. But Thor was in love with a Midgardian and Sigyn did not believe that he would stay with Asgard. He was not a guarantee. She feared Odin, feared his temper and the way he was so willing to rid himself of things that had outlived their use. Loki had been good and quiet and intelligent.

She knew that he had done terrible deeds. But All Father was just another word for murderer. Had not Rorrad the Great killed a thousand on the eve of his wedding to show his bride that he was worthy of sharing her bed chamber? Had not Lire the Wise slaughtered every son but the eldest when he learned that one of them had tried to steal a birth right that wasn't his own? It didn't make it right, but why was he being punished for what every other king had been celebrated for? Odin hadn't even stripped him of his title, not wanting the other realms to be even more aware that Prince Loki was mad and cast out. Who would want that sort of blemish on their line?

Sigyn walked through the streets barefoot and helped the plants to flourish. Never before had the summer time seemed so ominous. She waited. Loki would be freed. She had faith. He would do something to save himself. Sigyn knew that men like Loki were meant to rule, even if it wasn't for long. She would be waiting for him. He would need a queen. She would be there. Every day at the same time she sat in just the right place in the palace library so that she could feel her spine tingle. She knew that he could feel it and knew that she was faithful to him.

The snow came, and Sigyn let her flowers die. She stayed inside and the hothouses overflowed. She studied in the library and her spine tingled all the time. It was like months of that moment just before something life altering happens. That something came in the form of Prince Thor's lady Jane Foster. Sigyn had been in the library the day he had brought her to Asgard, and had heard that the aether was burning her up. Sigyn waited. She returned to her meadow and filled it with green. She went to the palace to hear news and feel her spine tingle, and coaxed life into enormous gardens. She had been in her little house outside of the city when the palace was attacked.

She went to the queen's funeral, and stood on the shore near the royal family. She was Sigyn daughter of Ag, the springtime bringer and soulmate to a prince of Asgard. No one could deny that she was in her proper place. Thor came to her with his plans to free his brother. She waited. On the day, the flowers and vines were over flowing and spilled through the arches of the palace. They crept up the guards legs and tripped them when they tried to run towards the calls for help.

She was thrown in the dungeon and she fretted over the plants. Her assistants would be able to manage crops but if she was not there than at least one realm would be struck with famine. She worried for her lanky dark haired match and for his kind blonde brother. She worried that Odin would order her executed for treason. She worried that the aether had reared its ugly head and taken the life of the kind lady Jane Foster.

For three weeks she was without flowers, or sunlight, or clean air. Odin released her suddenly and they told her that Loki was dead in the dirt of some far off realm.

They had told her he was dead once before. Her spine tingled all the time in the palace and she told no one.

The time was drawing nearer. She waited. The flowers bloomed.


	9. Chapter 9

Odin was different these days. Most said that it was age and loss that had softened him. They said that Loki's betrayal and Frigga's murder and Thor saying no to his birth right had made the king tired. Sigyn didn't say anything when she heard people say this. Her spine tingled when she passed the throne room and Odin's eyes seemed to turn green when their eyes locked.

"Lady Sigyn, Ag's daughter, the king has requested your immediate presence at the palace." The guard had come to her in the midafternoon, and Sigyn smiled. Her wait was over.

She left her meadow and returned to her little house after sending the soldier on his way. Her match had kept her waiting, he could wait for her. She rinsed the dirt off her hands and feet, and picked out the limp flowers that she had twined into her hair that morning. Sigyn changed into a delicate light pink dress, and ran to the flower crown that she had placed in a stasis slot to keep fresh. She had planned this crown out for weeks and it was made of the flowers Loki had given her and the pristine white flowers from the tree they had sat under as children. She placed it on her head and didn't put on shoes. He knew she was capable and strong. She wouldn't change who she was to show him that she was capable of ruling with him.

She was welcomed in the palace and the guards bowed their heads in respect as though they hadn't led her to a jail cell two months ago. A servant girl led her to the throne room where Odin sat on his large throne, only two soldiers next to him. The girl curtseyed and hurried out of the room. "Leave us." The king ordered his guards, who obeyed. "Lady Sigyn. You were imprisoned here for treason, not five weeks ago. Yet you still wander the halls as though you own it." Odin stated. "While it is true that I was recently imprisoned, it is also true that not two weeks ago I averted a famine in knowwhere that was caused by my imprisonment. Yet I have heard no thanks, nor even an apology. I would settle for a simple acknowledgement that the starvation of children was caused by the thoughtlessness of a government as old and supposedly advanced as ours." Sigyn declared coldly.

"Yes, the situation on knowwhere was regrettable. But what is done is done. Would you again choose to assist Prince Thor in freeing the traitor Loki? Knowing the consequences?" Odin asked. Sigyn raised her chin and met his eye. "Your Highness, I would of course. I would do it again in this very second if I knew it would bring my match back." She said, smiling at him when his eye filled with green. He smirked at her as his features shifted to that of the dead murderous traitor Loki. Sigyn's heart pattered with joy and her spine was tingling so much that she was nearly shivering. He stood up from the golden throne and stepped down the stairs. When he reached Sigyn, he took her slim hands in his own.

"I have felt your nearness these many months. I know that you are faithful. Sigyn, I do not believe I could have asked for a better mate."

"I knew that you would call to me when the time was right."

"You have always kept faith. You were the first person to crown me, you know. Will you stand by me, and be my queen?" His hand held the curve of her jaw. "I have always known that you would be great. I have been waiting my whole life for you to be ready. I would stand by you if you were some smuggler from Vera, of course I will be your queen." Sigyn declared. "I am gladdened to hear this. The only question is, whose queen? If you desire to be known only as King Loki's Queen, than I will come forward, and fight for my throne, and for you." Loki told her.

"I do desire to be known as Loki's Queen, but I most desire to be your queen. If I must forever be followed by the scandal of marrying my dead, mad, soulmates father and see your face only in private, then so be it. I have waited a very long time for this. For you."

"I do not wish for you to want for anything. But I regret my actions on Midgard, and I do not wish for there to be any more deaths." Loki said.

"Then I will be Odin's second Queen, and we will have peace. Perhaps, in a few hundred years, if you so desire, perhaps than you could come forward, and take your rightful place." Sigyn suggested, heart soaring with joy and relief. "Yes. Perhaps." He smiled slightly. He kissed her then, gently, like someone who broke something in their haste and so is scared that they will shatter something else.

He offered her the crook of his arm and she took it, feeling his arm shift as he transformed back into Odin. He led her toward the door and opened it for the both of them, and barely cast a glance at the guards. "The lady Sigyn and I will be retiring now. We do not wish to be disturbed." He called over his shoulder, leading the barefooted young woman to the king's bedchamber.

His arm shifted to thin when he closed the bedchamber doors behind them. Her hair had petals and his fingers tangled in it, suddenly, and her arms were thrown around his neck. Her kisses were eager. Her wait was over.


	10. Chapter 10

Sigyn had waited a very long time for this. Loki in the form of Odin gave her gifts, and all of Asgard seethed. They said she was some grasping whore because all they could see was a young woman who wandered the streets barefoot wearing the jewels of a great queen that were given to her by an old man that was not her soulmate. They did not see that her green eyed match had put the lovely string of gems on her neck himself. They did not see when he told her that they were his mothers, and that she would have wanted her to have them. They did not see the early mornings when she would wake to the young handsome face that she had waited so long for.

All they saw was an aging king and his mistress who was young enough to be his daughter. Sigyn twined flowers in her hair to match the necklace and went about her business. It was none of their concern. Prince Thor came to visit and was very quiet when he saw that she wore the necklace of his mother. She saw thoughtfulness in his blue eyes, and wondered if he knew. He didn't say anything. People don't always care about supposed right and wrong when their loved ones were the one doing the wrong. When he left he gave her a crushing hug and told her to take care of him. He didn't call him Odin or Father. She said she would.

'Odin' announces their wedding two months later. The vipers of court come out, offering her gifts and friendship if she'll only mention something or other to her husband to be. The ladies whisper that she is using an old magic that her match had taught her before he died to ensnare the king. An entire realm's dignitaries declined to attend. He sat in the gardens with her and learned how to make flower crowns again.

Sometimes she wakes to Loki's face and sometimes she wakes to Odin's face. Sometimes she wakes to the lovely face of a dark haired green eyed woman. She loves all of them, though if she's being honest, waking up next to Odin always makes her fearful in the moment before she remembers. The wedding is sumptuous. It has to be. The gardens are greater than they have ever been and food is distributed to the poor in all realms, even in realms where it must be done discretely or in secret. Her husband declares it a holiday and the fountains run with wine and this is how they win the young warriors. She waves and smiles and plays with the children in villages and this is how they win the common people. She takes the children of minor and major nobility as members of her household and never breathes a cruel word about Frigga. Not that she wants to. This is how they win the court. Gossiping old people are just gossiping old people, of no harm when they have no one to ride for their cause.

They crown her queen and she feels old and young, like a sparking ember or a dying star. Most of all, she feels afraid and hopeful. Her husband smiles at her and they dance at the weeks of balls that follow. She wakes up next to him in a bed with rumpled sheets. People treat her differently now. Sigyn stills wanders the streets, but now she wears slippers. It's not so much changing as adapting.

Loki whispers his true parentage to her in the dead of night. She curls up closer to him. She wanted to help him reach springtime. Thor visits. The flowers bloom. So does she.

Her stomach swells like a rose and Loki kisses it every morning. The ladies of court hurry to her side and begin the age old tradition of telling her everything she would ever need to know. Midwives are ordered. The people whisper and call blessings to her when she walks in the streets with her hand on her belly. She doesn't know what to ask the ancients for. When she started to pray all she could think to say was that she wanted a child that knew happiness.

The pains started when she was in the great hall. Odin orders her to be taken to the birthing chamber. The pain is great and long. The ceiling is painted with scenes of a great battle and she is naked when they put her on the birthing chair. The small wailing is mournful and they show her a bloody baby and tell her that she has a daughter. They clean her and weigh her and wave their instruments around her to determine her health and swaddle her and give her back. She's got a few strands of dark brown hair and they let 'Odin' in as soon as they can.

"A princess of Asgard. What should she be called?" He asks, looking down at her. "Lirra. Princess Lirra, Odin's daughter." She decides. Their eyes meet. They don't want this girl to always be called Odin's daughter. They will have to make a move one day.

Thor visits his 'little sister' and whispers in Sigyn's ear that she is the spitting image of Loki when he hugs her.

She takes her child to see the gardens. She wakes up next to her husband. A new wait has begun. The flowers bloom.


	11. Chapter 11

The black widow has no soulmate. The winter soldier has no soul. These are true. But the truth isn't all things to all people all of the time.

The black widow doesn't have a soulmate, because the black widow is only a name. Natasha is the widow but the widow isn't her. Natasha is a million miles away from Clint Barton and this is how she wants it. She can't see the horror in his eyes that she is what he is stuck with if she never meets him.

The winter soldier doesn't have a soul. He knows this is true, because it is what they tell him. The winter soldier doesn't have a soul, but they tell him his name is James. He has a name in those days. The girl they put him with calls him James, when they are alone together, and it is the only time he feels something like a person.

They lie in bed together after, she is smart and tells Them that they need more time if They want them to create the next ultimate puppet. They don't say much all the time. She lies there, and he lies there, and they stare at the ceiling. She doesn't think about the last person she killed. She thinks about the person next to her, and the person on her spine, and most of all she thinks about herself. She does not yet live the life of heroics that she will. He reaches out to the very tips of his mind, gathering everything he knew together and reminding himself of himself._Your name is James.__Last week you killed a man with a green tie.__When it is cold you feel like you are supposed to be somewhere.__The girl with red hair will not save you.__You will not save her. _People may get saved, but neither of you are a person.

The ice sinks into his mind and into her bones and she never lets it near her heart and it never goes for his, only wants his brain and memories of a Someone. There never is a baby. She thinks that this is the only proof of a kind God that she has ever seen. She wonders if it would have had his eyes. She wonders if he would know his own child. She wonders if he would know himself.

This is the ghost in the night. This is the shadow. This is a more alert puppet, who is remembering just how many strings there are. This is months of work and no results. This is-

It doesn't matter what it could have been. They take him away.

This is a full wipe. He has no name. He still feels like there is something that he needs to do when it is cold. The only thing he remembers of her is red hair on the pillow next to him.

When the smoke is chocking, he wants to smile behind his mask. Somebody is burning them down. The winter soldier pauses to melt the ice in his veins.

The red headed girl's fighting style was effective, and it had been a very long time since the winter soldier had met his equal. His mind is clicking, grinding, doing anything to simply wake up, but there is simply too much ice. Her hair flickers in and out of his conscious.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" wasn't his name James once?


	12. Chapter 12

Virgil Potts was born in a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. His parents were so pleased with their baby boy that they never had another child, and they didn't mind at all that he had a boy's name down his back. Whoever James Rhodes was, he was lucky to be soulmates with their darling son.

Virgil Potts was ten years old when he told his parents that she was a girl. They had always wanted a girl anyway. Virginia Potts gets every book in the library on soulmates. They all said that legal names don't appear if it isn't the soulmates true name. She liked to have things in order. The girl grew up the child of computer programmers, and knew that organization was important if you wanted to do something big. Virginia Potts wanted to do something Big.

Virginia Potts is hired straight out of high school. Not by Audey Stark, that comes later. Virginia Potts is hired to hack Stark Industries. It's big, but she can do bigger.

The flash drive is loading, she's almost there, the money she gets from this is going to pay for surgeries and medications that her parents couldn't afford. The flash drive is loading, it's almost there, Virginia is going to do something Big. The flash drive is loading, almost there, just a minute longer, she's caught. A barrel chested man takes her to an office. Audey Stark grins and asks if she wants to be her personal assistant. It's big, and she can use it to do Bigger.

She's Pepper now, with money for the things her loving parents couldn't buy her and a hand in everything Audey Stark did. "Audey, will you look over these papers for the Maria Stark Foundation, it's a proposal about the shelters and opening the doors to All women."

"Pep, I'm being revolutionary over here, do we have to do this now?"

"This is revolutionary Audey. I would do it myself but it needs your signature."

"If you're really interrupting my genius you may as well whip something up about Stark industries health care plan. It needs changing anyway."

Pepper Potts was doing Big things, getting Bigger. Audey Stark had always been BIGGEST, and Pepper doesn't really mind working for someone who's younger than her, not really. Audey brings home girls and guys and robots and hangovers and an air force pilot.

James Rhodes was born with Pepper Potts written precisely on his spine. Whenever he catches sight of it he can't help but wonder who the hell would name their kid Pepper Potts. It's not a bad name, just slightly unfortunate.

His little brother Willie dies when James is nine years old and he promises god that if he sends him another brother, he'll keep this one safe. What he gets is Audey Stark. God has a sick sense of humor 'Rhodey' decides. His mom taught him to keep his promises, so he does his damnedest to keep Audey safe. She's fourteen and can't be bothered to eat or sleep and her pupils are dilated way too often and James knows he's a bad big brother if he can't even keep his best friend/kid sister/cause of death out of harms way.  
>They send out him to be a pilot and Audey builds him(the army)(it's for him) a new jet. It's faster and safer and deadlier and it's a weird way to show you care about someone, giving them and an entire branch of the military a more effective method of killing, but he's pretty used to weird by now. Audey sends him a letter littered with complaints about writing a <em>letter<em> and says she's got a new assistant who's scary efficient and Rhodey just has to meet her. Her name's Pepper. Pepper Potts. He remembers that Audey can be such a total bitch when he reads it over and over and realizes she waited for the very last sentence to make sure that this information came at him like a slap in the face.

He flies to California when he gets leave. She's pretty and whip smart and a little terrifying. "Hello, I'm Pepper Potts Ms. Stark's personal assistant. Let me show you where the guest bedroom is Mr.…"

"James Rhodes." He'd never been more scared than he was right then.

Meeting your soulmate was a very Big thing to do.


	13. Chapter 13

Howard Stark had wanted a boy. What he got is a little girl with a tuft of black hair and a scrunched up red face, and it's a cold December and he wonders if that means anything at all. Her back has Percival Ignatius Weasley written down it, and he's never heard the name Weasley, so his daughter won't be marrying old money. It's unusual to have a full name on your back. He had wanted a boy. He accepts what he got. His wife doesn't want another child and he's fine with just the one. They name her Audrey Francis Stark, Francis for Maria's sister, to call attention to the Catholic-ness of them. He thinks that he would have preferred Esther, after his mother.

Audey Stark is born with Percival Ignatius Weasley down her back and when she's five and sitting at the kitchen table with Jarvis making her dinner (her parents are having a party upstairs)(they're a million miles away from her) she says that it's a stupid name. "Don't say that miss. He's your soulmate."

"What if I don't like him?' (What if he doesn't like me?)

"Ahh, I don't think you need to worry yourself over that. Besides it's a nice enough name, a good English name."

Her father had wanted a boy. She knows that much. She knows she wants his approval and she knows she wants to make him mad and so she asks her aunty Peggy if there's any way to do both. Audey Stark is a very precocious five year old.

"You know. I had a problem like that once. I still have it, to be honest. I think the best thing you can do is this; be yourself." Aunty Peggy tells her, kneeling in front of her. Audey wants to be just like her when she grows up. She steals her mother's reddest lipstick and puts it on with her childs precision and she grins at herself in the mirror before she runs to show her father.

Audey Stark is a genius, and they send her to boarding school at age ten when she's beginning ninth grade. (What they don't tell her is this; her mother's taking pills and can't sleep without a bottle of sherry, Jarvis's heart attack really aged him, her father doesn't know what to do with her.) The school is in Switzerland and what you don't know about boarding school is this: there is the occasional famous persons kid, but mostly it's attended by children with a pedigree, children who can recite their history, children who understand that their life will rarely be their own. Audey Stark stands out like a sore thumb.

She hits MIT the year after she begins to bleed and she wonders if she'll always be going faster than the people around her. Even her so called soulmate. She stuffs her bras for the first half of the year she's there and when the tits finally come in good she ransacks a Victoria's Secret. Rhodey tries to look after her, he really does, but Audey doesn't want to be looked after. The booze and the boys and drugs and girls flock to Audey. Lucky for her she's got a body like sex and she grins like the devil and the only person see's through it all is Rhodey.

She gets the company. Renews the government's contracts. Never looks at the name on her back. Poses for playboy. Leaves Obie in charge a little too much. Hires Pepper. Invents. Gets kidnapped at age twenty two. They cut her hair and force Yinsen to hook her up to a battery and she gives herself a new heart and it's a machine that just keeps on ticking (she doesn't want it to) just like her old one.(she didn't want that one to either.)

The suit is big and bulky and they don't have it cut to her frame so it's too tight and to loose and she's sort of glad they cut her hair because it would only have got in the way. And Yinsen's dying and telling her not to waste her life and she wants to scream to the God that she doesn't believe in that this man deserves to live far more than her.

When New York is under attack she smiles(genuinely) at Romanoff and Hill. She understands what it's like to be a woman in a man's world. She likes Dr. Banner and Thor seems weird but nice, even taking into account the fight from before. Captain America AKA her father's hero is a killjoy asshole but Audey knows she's an obnoxious asshole so maybe they could also be friends if they live. Barton seems like a guy who has accidently eaten dog treats so all in all, she's pretty sure they're going to die.

She makes sure to hold her eyes open for as long as she can. The stars are beautiful. Space is cold. She had never felt her spine tingle a day in her life but in the two split seconds that she was in the space between worlds it's so intense it's like her muscles are spasming.

Percy Weasley was born with Audrey Francis Stark written on his spine. It's not a bad name and it's so complete that he could find her whenever he wanted, but for some reason he never really does. He's born in trouble times and his first few years are war, but he's a happy if shy boy.

When the hat tells him that Slytherin would be just as good a fit as Gryffindor he chooses Gryffindor because he may respect cunning more than anything but he's eleven and wants to be wildly brave more than anything else.

The redheaded boy grows tall(grows taller than his brothers, taller than his father), grows lonely and sad, grows even more cunning. Dumbledore asks him to spy. Asks him to leave his family. Asks him to break his mums heart and his own. Asks him to die every day. Asks him to allow his siblings to hate him. Asks him to ignore his father who might die any day thinking his third son hates him. Dumbledore asks a lot, and Percy says he'll do it all. A muggle agency approaches Dumbledore and asks if he needs help, offers to train any spies he might have when the old man(fool, Percy will think ruefully, when he realizes just what he's agreed to) declines.

They teach him how to shoot a gun a disable an opponent and they say he has potential, and a balding man named Coulson hands him his card tells him that if he lives through this and ever wants a job to call him.

After the war ends, when he's excepted back into the family and the twins are always grinning and his mum hums all the time, he goes back to work for the ministry. It's terrible. Everywhere he goes are memories and he's seen how bad the place is, all the corruption it has to offer and he doesn't want any part in it, but they're short staffed and in shambles and he feels like he should stay. For three years he stays. He hates it there and he can't remember why he ever wanted to go into politics and he starts wanting to do something he'll regret so he quits. Quits and gives Coulson a call.

He's junior agent Weasley now, and in this world no one knows a thing about his family and its freeing, to say the least. He meets her a month after he joins when she needs someone to help her disable a bomb(he's long since learned how to center his magic). She's grinning and cocky and he's wondering who this girl is, to be cracking jokes with Director Fury. "Stark, just defuse the damn bomb so I can get back to important shit."

"But why would I do that, Fury? This is the only quality time we've gotten in months and you know you like me better than Steve."

"Defuse the bomb Stark."

She rolls her eyes and cuts the wire. Percy holds his breath, waiting for the explosion. It comes in the form of her turning her eyes to him. "The place isn't going to go into ball of flame, you know that right? Geez what are you teaching these kids about bomb safety Fury? What's your name agent?"

He meets her eyes and he thinks she knows before he says. "Percy Weasley."

"Percy? Oh thank god I was worried I was going to have to introduce you to people as 'Percival' my whole life!" She jokes a little hysterically.

He's pretty sure out of her mind, and she knows she is.

They'll make it work, of course. He's Percy Weasley and she's Audey Stark and they both hate their middle names and quit their last jobs in a hurry and it's going to be explosive.


End file.
